Proud is what I am of my 12 yr old son. His team just came of their recent win of 1st place in Robotic Performance and Grand Overall Champions at their qualifying robotics competition. And this weekend his FLL Robotic team, Mission 3.16, went to regionals in Melbourne, Florida to compete against 28 other regional teams. His team placed first overall in Robotic Design, and 3rd overall in the robotic performance portion of the competition (missed 1st place by 5 points!!! It was a very close competition for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd). The Mission 3.16 team has put so much into this tournament this year that it amazes me. They put consistent hours into research, building, and programming their robot during school, after school, on weekends, during holiday breaks, and all to prepare for these competitions. And it has paid off for all of them big time. They truly come together as a TEAM each time their work around each other. During these competitions, and even while working at school, the coaches and mentors are there solely for guidance. They have no hands on with the design and building of the robotics, nor the programming of the robotics. It is TOTALLY on the kids to design, build, program, test, research, and everything else. Now they move on to the state competition in 3 weeks.
The Mission 3.16 team consists of (4) 8th graders, (4) 7th graders, and my son, the only 6th grader. And they training him to be the master programmer for next year once the 8th graders move on to high school. I am very proud of him and all of his hard work this year in the Competition Robotics program for his school and look forward to watching him continue to grow over the following years in this program.
Congrats to my son and his team for their great accomplishments. And GO MISSION 3.16!
This portrait is of him sitting on the window sill of our hotel room waiting for the remainder of this team to arrive.
Canon 30D
EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
1/50
f/2.0
ISO100
Natural light only from window.